Adventures on Little Corn

March 20, 2011
We ran out of money a few days ago but have kept a little stash in order that we may go to Tranquilo today after snorkeling to have a delicious bbq'd cheese burger on coconut bread buns! But alas is it is very difficult to get what you want, when you want on this island. Sunday being a day of rest here among the god fearing means closed for business and no burgers for us. We have had to eat at our hostel everyday for every meal because we have a tab and can pay for it with a credit card when we leave. Lots of places around the island have signs that say they accept credit cards but when we ask they always say..."no not right now" or its only for guests of their hotel. There is a particularily good restaurant just down the beach that we long to eat at but even after schmoozing the owners they can still not accept payment in credit card or dish washing for that matter. We are very preoccupied with food lately...mostly because we are spoiled rotten 1st worlders who always get what they want.
The hostess at our accomodations is a little girl named Shanelly who speaks creole and spanish and likes to boss the customers about. She can get away with most everything becuase she knows she is adorable. Her mom does her hair in braids every morning and every morning she wails her head off. But once she is set free she roams about the hostel seeing if anybody has any cool sunglasses that she can try on and is also a fan of having her picture taken. I think she is about 2. She likes to count to 10 before she jumps off the bench into the sand and thinks that 6 comes after 9 and won't be told any different. Shanelly likes to put her tooth marks into crayons and eats paper and flowers. She says: "mmm tastes like mango!" about everything. She tried to feed me a flower to prove it to me. Shanelly has a little baby brother but she can't remember his name. I drew her a flower and she went and told all the other customers and her Dad that she drew it, what a stinker. No one believed her though because we have all seen her artwork scrawled into the tables with crayon and know that she is still in the scribbles stage.
We did one dive yesterday. We were a bit disapointed because the visability was pretty bad and there wasn't much in way of large sea creatures. We did get to spot a couple of squid which was pretty cool and a monster lobster and a pair of dinner plate sized grey angel fish. There aren't any dive boats going out to the shark reefs this week because the wind has been pretty heavy. We saw one boat go out there but they were from a dive shop on Big Corn Island. Talked to a guy from Nova Scotia and he saw hammerhead and nurse sharks and sting rays. We're gonna go out on the boat to snorkel tomorrow with they guys who run our hostel because at least then we can charge it! We Canadians are out-numbering every other nationality we are finding. Met a family from the Yukon here on spring break vacation with thier teenagers.
This guy named Igor who is originally from Yugoslavia but has an Australian passport asked us if we wanted to go to Bocas Del Toro in Panama on his sailboat on tuesday. For $100 each we could ride on the boat for 180 miles. We'd have to pay for food and our entrance to Panama by boat ($75!!). We were pretty tempted because after our weeny sailing trip in Belize this one seemed legitamately a sailing trip. No motoring the whole way but actually using the sail to move the freakin boat! He came down here from Utila and it took about 16 days and they hit a few storms. The guy from Vancouver came down with him and said it was pretty scary at times. One night they hit a bad storm and had to take down the main sail and the boom wasn't tied tight so it was swinging around and they went over a big wave and the boat lurched and was inches away from slamming into Igor's face. Very close call. Plus nobody else on the boat knew how to sail so if they lost Igor they were all lost too. Sailing is so cool....its still seems like an adventure.
The place we are staying is called Cool Spot or Grace's Place. It seems like every place has a name and then who run's it. We've got a cabana that's about 20feet from the water with a hammock out front and even our own bathroom. Its super basic and looks like it would fall apart in a hurricane for sure. We were reading with the light on and all of a sudden it went out a little burst of flame came out of the light switch. Its a good thing we only have power at night or the whole place would burn down. We tried to cook itchyban with our little water heater element thing and a bucket and the water refused to boil so we gave up and went and had lobster instead. We each got two lobster tails for about $12 each. Lobster is about the only thing that is not proportionately priced. A burger and fries is $8 and hey for $4 more you can have a lobster feast!
Last night we found a crab in the bathroom. The floor is half concrete and half dirt behind the toilet and that must have been where he was hiding. I was doing my business and was about to throw the toilet paper in the trash (you can't flush your toilet paper down the toilet anywhere in central america!) when the crab grabbed the toilet paper out of my hand and tried to eat it! eeww. freaked me out i thought it was a mouse or something. Chad chased it around for a while but it eventually slipped thought he crack in the wall.
We went for a snorkel today but we only have one set of fins and mask. So we borrowed one mask and Chad had to tug me around. There isn't much to see in front of our place, mostly sea grass and sandy patches. We found a couple big conch's and a little sting ray and a few fish hanging out around some sunken palm tree logs. The channel where all the sharks hang out is actually directly in front of our place but you would need a boat to get out there. We went out pretty far but I got scared so I made Chad tug me back closer to the shore. I would rather be closer to a boat if I saw a shark. They say that the nurse sharks and even the hammerheads have never hurt anyone around here but still they are big fish with big teeth, that's enough to make me nervous. On a dive last week this guy from Vancouver went out and sat on the bottom and the sharks just swim around and basically ignore you so he decided to grab a hammerhead's tail. Obviously the shark was not impressed and took off pretty fast but as they were ascending he noticed the sharks starting to circle below them. That was enough to get him onto the boat in record time.
There are no cars here on little corn, nothing motorized at all actually. We have walked around quite a bit and did some exploring. Ended up in this German lady's yard where we thought there was supposed to be a restaurant. There was a sign that said "Farm Peace and Love" but apparently it is not a place to eat. She came out of her house and asked us what we were doing wandering around her yard. She had a massive Great Dane and a Bull Mastif and a couple other mutt style island dogs and some horses and cows. I think that you can stay out there but I don't believe she advertises or makes it well know. Plus she seemed kinda cranky especially for one who owns a farm called "Farm Peace and Love". After that place we tried "Derek's Place" which apparently has food sometimes. We strolled in and he also looked perturbed as to our presence. We asked if we could get some food, no dice....of course. But the lady who ran the kitchen said she could make us some fresh squeezed juice. Sounded delightful to us. But she only had one orange and some passion fruit so we had one watered down orange juice and a delicious passion fruit blended with ice. The cost: $5US!! If we would have known we would have kept on our way. Our precious cash funds depleted on juice! They seem to like using US dollars here for some reason. Not sure why but our place here charges in Cordobas.
I tried to find a place with internet to call me mum. I try to call every sunday but it doesn't always work and today was no exception. The power being out for more time than the power being on here leaves the wifi connections useless most of the time. Oh well, hopefully they will be in Costa Rica soon to hang out with us at the beach learning to surf! Only 8 weeks left of this trip and I have a feeling its going to go fast.